It looks increasingly likely that heads will roll following the Hutton inquiry into the death of Iraqi weapons expert David Kelly.

One North East Labour MP told me: "It's looking bad for everybody connected with this affair; the Government, No 10, the Ministry of Defence and the BBC".

By all accounts Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is favourite to fall on his sword and there's widespread speculation that Downing Street communications chief, Alastair Campbell, is set to go, possibly to write his memoirs. He's become a major part of the story, something which spin doctors are supposed to avoid. Others may follow.

If that happens, it can only increase the isolation of the Prime Minister who has lost key supporters, including Stephen Byers, Alan Milburn, Mo Mowlam, Peter Mandelson, Estelle Morris, and Derry Irvine in the last few years.

Further Blairite casualties as a result of the Kelly affair will add to his woes.

Another North East backbencher declared: "Nobody is coming out of it well. It's a question of trust. The problem is the general perception coming out of it all that the Government is untrustworthy. If that sticks, then we're in trouble."

Meanwhile, isn't it amazing the number of embarrassing e-mails that have been flying around both at the BBC and at Westminster?

The lesson is not to put anything in writing which may come back to haunt you later.

LIBERAL Democrat MP Lembit Opik continues to get his face on prime-time TV, not because of weighty political matters, but because his girlfriend happens to be Sian Lloyd, the weather presenter who appeared on I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here.

This time Ms Lloyd was appearing on a Saturday night Stars In Their Eyes special as Deborah Strickland, of one-hit wonders The Flying Lizards, to give her version of their song, Money (That's What I Want).

Her performance did nothing to convince anyone she should give up the day job. Meanwhile, Mr Opik, a former Newcastle city councillor, was filmed alongside Ms Lloyd getting the sort of publicity money can't buy.

AS the British National Party prepares to contest a council by-election in the Labour stronghold of Walker, Newcastle, there is a wake-up call to the mainstream parties from Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Mr Phillips was speaking in the wake of a BNP victory at a council by-election in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, which means the party now holds 17 seats nationwide, though none are in the North East.

He said: "It's time that the mainstream parties started taking local elections more seriously and wake up to the threat of the BNP on the ground.

"Each seat gained by the BNP is a blow for good race relations."

NEWCASTLE councillor Jimmy Snowdon, who runs a charity to recondition old work tools to help people in the Third World, is delivering a batch of sewing machines to Frankland Prison, near Durham City, this week which the prisoners will repair as part of the project. It is a worthwhile cause which gives the inmates of the high-security jail, who have their own charity workshop, some job satisfaction.

Mr Snowdon tells me his organisation, Tyneside Tool Aid, also reconditions old files, chisels and saws but declared: "I can't take these into the prison - for obvious reasons."

IT is now more than three weeks since Nexus launched a crackdown on fare-dodgers on the Metro with a pledge that one in three tickets will be checked.